It comes at a distance, from a woman in a white SUV pulling up to the intersection of Markham Road and Lawrence Avenue.

The Liberal candidate for the riding of Scarborough-Guildwood is on this corner one recent Friday for what the campaign likes to call the “morning wave.”

She is smiling as brightly as the sun, carrying a red umbrella, wearing red pants with polka dots and a red necklace, and has painted her finger nails — you guessed it — red.

So far, she has something to smile about. Polls have her leading the pack in this race to fill a provincial legislature seat vacated by Liberal Margarett Best — one of two Toronto ridings up for grabs in a by-election bonanza Thursday.

The latest survey by Forum Research put Ms. Hunter at 38% support, followed by the Progressive Conservatives’ Ken Kirupa at 32% and New Democratic Party hopeful Adam Giambrone at 21%.

Darren Calabrese / National Post Ken Kirupa, Ontario PC candidate for Scarborough-Guildwood, prepares to go canvassing in a nearby neighbourhood while at his campaign office in Scarborough on Monday, July 29, 2013.

In the dying days of the campaign, the candidates are pulling out all the stops.

Tuesday, Mayor Rob Ford was helping install PC signs with Mr. Kirupa, a real estate agent who immigrated from Sri Lanka 24 years ago, while Mr. Giambrone, who bowed out of a Toronto mayoral race in 2010 over a sex scandal, has attended several announcements with NDP leader Andrea Horwath.

“If you say you want to go and vote Liberal, then you’re basically just giving a bank robber another gun and say[ing] go rob another bank. That’s what it comes down to,” said Mr. Ford, dismissing Ms. Hunter’s claims of being a “subway champion” as the “biggest bunch of malarky.” He called the Liberals a “corrupt government.”

The PCs also say she misled voters by plastering supportive quotes from broadcaster John Tory on election pamphlets.

The Liberal party later fired back, suggesting Mr. Kirupa is lying about how long he has been living in Scarborough-Guildwood. The Grits cite land registry information showing he owned a home in Vaughan as recently as June.

Mr. Kirupa, who said he moved back into the riding six months ago after living in Maple for four years, dismissed the attack as a “desperate” attempt to distract voters from the real issues.

“The prosperous Ontario when I came in is not there anymore,” he said.

Mud-slinging aside, the bid to replace the Scarborough Rapid Transit (RT) line with a subway is front and centre in this contest.

This is even though it will not cross into the riding, population 110,000, that counts Gujarati, Tamil and Urdu as the most common mother tongues, after English.

Ms. Hunter and Mr. Kirupa are both promising underground transit, while Mr. Giambrone, once an unabashed light rail champion, will only say he supports “rapid transit” now.

As head of Civic Action, Ms. Hunter, 40, endorsed the Big Move transit blueprint that includes turning the RT into an LRT, for light rapid transit. She denies changing her position for political reasons, saying her years growing up and working in Scarborough taught her subways are a must-have.

But she isn’t pushing for Queen’s Park to pay any more than than the $1.4-billion it has committed to the project — $400-million short of the cost.

“The feds should come in with one third … that’s the right thing, that’s how infrastructure projects are paid for across Canada, and Toronto and Scarborough should really receive its share,” she said.

Like Ms. Hunter, Mr. Giambrone, 36, doesn’t live in the riding (Ms. Hunter says she will move there if she wins). At a press conference he speaks, sometimes in French, of his transit credentials as former Toronto Transit Commission chairman as proof of his ability deliver results.

Three years removed from revelations he had multiple affairs while in a relationship, Mr. Giambrone is still dogged by the past.

Asked why voters should trust his judgment now, he says, “People want somebody who is going to be a strong representative, they want somebody who is going to stand up for them at Queen’s Park and not let the Liberals treat them as second class citizens,” adding “everything is out there.”

Asked to elaborate, Mr. Giambrone lowers his rectangular shades and asks, “Do you have Google?”

TORONTO — Ontario’s opposition parties proposed different strategies Tuesday to get to the bottom of what they say was an attempt by former premier Dalton McGuinty’s office to pressure the Speaker of the legislature to change a ruling against the government.

Newly-released emails show senior Liberals in McGuinty’s office tried to get Speaker Dave Levac to change his preliminary finding that then-energy minister Chris Bentley was in contempt for not releasing all documents on two cancelled gas plants.

The Progressive Conservatives want the integrity commissioner to find out if the Liberals threatened Levac or made the Speaker an offer to drop the contempt ruling.

“It’s absolutely unclear what the threat was or what he was offered or what the demands of him were,” said PC energy critic Vic Fedeli.

“I’m looking forward to the integrity commissioner looking into the very integrity of that conversation. What occurred? What was he threatened with?”

Michelle Siu / CP files Ontario NDP house leader Gilles Bisson, left, and Ontario official opposition house leader Jim Wilson listen as the Ontario Power Authority leaders answer questions regarding the additional documents that were uncovered related to the controversial cancellation of gas plants during a press conference in Toronto on Thursday, February 21, 2013.

The NDP plan to call two of the McGuinty staffers, whose emails talked about pressuring the Speaker to change his contempt finding, to appear before the justice committee hearings into the cancelled gas plants, which resume next Tuesday.

“The first people we need to hear from are those people who were out there trying to bully the speaker,” said New Democrat house leader Gilles Bisson. “What we hear from them will determine if we call the Speaker. If need be, we will call the Speaker.”

The Tories said discussions about trying to intimidate the Speaker shows the Liberals will stop at nothing to try and bury the scandal over their decision to cancel gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga prior to the 2011 election, which has cost at least $585 million.

“Operatives, including the senior campaign adviser to Premier Kathleen Wynne, clearly attempted to hijack a Speaker’s decision,” Fedeli wrote in a letter to integrity commissioner Lynn Morrison.

“Which incentives were offered or punishments were threatened is unclear, but these actions threatened and undermine the institutions we value in our democracy.”

Peter J. Thompson / National Post filesDalton McGuinty resigned as premier last September and prorogued the legislature just hours before the committee hearings were to begin into the cancelled gas plants, delaying the inquiry for several months.

The NDP said pressing the Speaker in a private meeting to change his ruling is the same as trying to interfere with a judge during a court proceeding.

“That’s pretty serious stuff, and akin to somebody going to a judge and trying to influence a judge on a decision,” said Bisson. “You don’t do that. There are ramifications.”

Levac was expected to put out a statement Tuesday responding to the claims he was pressured by top Liberals to drop the contempt ruling.

The emails between senior Liberals showed Levac had rebuffed attempts by former McGuinty aide Dave Gene, who met with the Speaker in an effort to convince him to change the contempt ruling.

McGuinty resigned as premier last September and prorogued the legislature just hours before the committee hearings were to begin into the cancelled gas plants, delaying the inquiry for several months.

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NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says her party felt it was important to work with the Liberals to get changes in the budget rather than washing their hands of the issue like the Progressive Conservatives did.

Horwath says the budget contains several NDP ideas, including a youth jobs program, increased welfare rates, more money for home care services and the creation of a new Financial Accountability Officer.

Opposition Leader Tim Hudak lashed out at the NDP for propping up what he says is a corrupt government that tried to hide the cost of cancelling gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga, now an estimated $585 million.

The legislature adjourned until Sept. 9 following the passage of the budget.

TORONTO — The Ontario Provincial Police have launched a criminal probe into the destruction of emails about the cancellation of two gas plants by senior Liberal staff.

The province’s privacy watchdog issued a scathing report this week saying they broke the law by deleting emails on cancelled gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga.

OPP Commissioner Chris Lewis says he’s referred the matter to the Criminal Investigation Services and will interview people named in the report.

He says it’s hard to say how long it may take before police determine whether any criminal charges should be laid.

Premier Kathleen Wynne said Thursday that the mass email deletions by Dalton McGuinty’s staff were unacceptable and current staff have been made aware of their record retention obligations.

Galit Rodan / Bloomberg files Premier Kathleen Wynne said Thursday that the mass email deletions by Dalton McGuinty's staff were unacceptable and current staff have been made aware of their record retention obligations.

The New Democrats said McGuinty should testify under oath before a legislative committee about the destruction of emails.

NDP energy critic Peter Tabuns said the party has formally requested that McGuinty appear at the justice committee hearings into cancelled gas plants in Mississauga and Oakville to explain the mass deletion of emails on the two projects.

“Dalton McGuinty needs to come back and answer this new information from the privacy commissioner,” said Tabuns.

Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner reported this week that McGuinty’s chief of staff, David Livingston, tried in January to find out how to permanently delete the electronic records from government databases.

“His chief of staff asked for information to destroy all the records on computers, and frankly we need to know did (McGuinty) tell him to do that,” said Tabuns.

“On the other hand, did (McGuinty) in fact make it clear to him that information had to be preserved and the law followed?”

Even though McGuinty left the premier’s office in late January, he remains the MPP for Ottawa South, but he has only shown up in the legislature twice this year, for votes on the minority government’s Throne Speech and the budget motion.

Sitting members can’t be compelled to testify at committee, but Tabuns said he expects Premier Kathleen Wynne to force the former premier to show up.

“Kathleen Wynne has made it very clear that if people have questions about those emails with regard to the former premier, he should be asked,” said Tabuns. “She should make sure that that member of her caucus appears and answers questions.”

McGuinty’s office said Friday that he was not available to comment, and declined to answer questions on whether or not he would agree to testify about the deleted emails.

Wynne’s office said she has been very clear about wanting to be open and transparent on the gas plants files, and noted both the current and former premier had already made appearances at the justice committee hearings.

However, a statement Friday from the premier’s office did not say if she would compel McGuinty to make a second committee appearance.

The opposition parties say the emails were wiped out by the Liberals to try to cover up the true costs of cancelling the gas plants, which has grown to an estimated $585 million, well above the $230 million the government had claimed.

The Progressive Conservatives, meanwhile, confirmed they had asked the OPP to investigate the deletion of the emails as theft of government property.

“We’re here to stand up for the taxpayers of Ontario and we have to know how much this is going to cost,” said PC critic Monte McNaughton.

“Whoever covered this up, quite frankly should go to jail.”

In addition to McGuinty and Livingston, Tabuns said the NDP also want the committee to hear from several other senior Liberals whose email accounts were deleted, including Craig MacLennan, the former chief of staff to the minister of energy.

On Thursday, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty threw a wrench into Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s efforts to create dedicated streams of revenue to fund transit expansion in the Toronto region. Metrolinx, a provincial transit agency overseeing the province’s “Big Move” plan for infrastructure construction, recently proposed a slate of new “revenue tools” — taxes and fees — to fund said plan. By far the biggest component: A one-percent hike to Ontario’s HST. The added revenue, estimated to amount to $1.3-billion a year in the Toronto area alone, would be dedicated exclusively to funding transportation.

Premier Wynne has previously signaled her openness to this plan, on the understanding that some of the additional revenue would be rebated back to low-income earners. She also insisted that only residents of the Toronto region would have to pay, and that the good people of Timmins, Cornwall and Sudbury would not be asked to open their wallets for the benefit of GTA commuters.

But Mr. Flaherty was quick to signal that the federal government was skeptical.

“We did not lower the GST to have it taken away from Ontarians by the Wynne government with a new sales tax hike,” Mr. Flaherty wrote in a letter to his provincial counterpart. “As you are well aware, the Comprehensive Integrated Tax Coordination Agreement signed by the government of Ontario does not allow for the provincial component of the HST to vary between regions within the province.”

“Let me be clear, our government will not accept such a proposed regional sales tax increase on the residents of the [Toronto region],” Mr. Flaherty added.

The Ontario government was quick to fire back, pointing out that as it is still in the planning stages, it had yet to make any official request of the federal government, beyond that it commit to stable national transit funding (which it has not done).

But political bickering aside, it’s clear that Ontario’s plans to fund the Big Move just got more complicated.

In principle, there is no reason why transit funding in Toronto should not be accomplished through dedicated revenue streams. The transit file in the region has been so chronically mismanaged, for so long, and by so many different leaders, that we support anything that brings predictability to the process. We have no faith in the ability of elected leaders at city hall or at Queen’s Park to provide the funds necessary to complete needed projects in a timely manner: Even that basic function of regional and municipal government has proven beyond their abilities. New, dedicated funds are a way to address their dysfunctionality on this file.

At the same time, however, Mr. Flaherty is entirely correct to question whether the HST is the appropriate tool for this task. Yes, a 1% boost to the sales tax is a relatively simple way of raising a lot of money. But the HST is supposed to apply equally across the province (the “H” stands for “harmonized,” after all).

Moreover, deciding where precisely the Toronto region is demarcated for transit purposes would be a politically tricky process prone to absurd outcomes and compromises. There are people who live north of Barrie, and West of Hamilton, for instance, who commute five days a week to Toronto, traveling 100km-plus in each directions. In this sense, most large communities in Ontario would be affected in one way or another by the Big Move.

She could attempt to use Ontario’s taxation powers to establish a regional sales tax separate from the HST. This would require establishing a whole new administrative bureaucracy and would still require politically sensitive determinations of where the relevant region begins and ends, but would not require federal approval. Or Ontario could simply seek to raise the HST province-wide — with the money raised in the Toronto area going toward transit, and the money raised everywhere else going toward some as-yet-undefined purpose.

If Ontario chose the latter course, some estimates suggest that $1.7-billion would be generated in the rest of the province. In theory, that money could be put to good use. In practice, it would become a sort of slush fund. A province with a gigantic deficit should not be creating new excuses to waste money — just to provide political cover for a tax hike that is primarily needed by the Toronto region.

Some of Metrolinx’s proposals make sense — including fees and tolls limited to the Toronto region that will then fund transit in the same area. That seems a more promising avenue for raising funds than bloating the provincial tax structure with regional boosts and carve-outs. The fairest way to fund new road infrastructure is to get the money directly from the people who use it.

The leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives launched an aggressive push to trigger an election Monday, calling for a non-confidence motion over what he deemed a Liberal “fiasco” surrounding gas plants cancelled near Toronto in 2010 and 2011.

“What’s the cost, we ask, of leaving the Liberals in charge for even one more day if they’re willing to waste your tax dollars, up to a billion dollars cancelled gas plants, to save Liberal seats in the last election campaign?” Tim Hudak told reporters at a news conference.

“They did it once with Oakville. They did it twice with Mississauga. If they get away with it, they’re going to try it again.”

The Liberal government halted construction on the Mississauga plant right before the 2011 election, with plans to relocate it to Sarnia. Eight months earlier, officials had cancelled plans for a plant in Oakville, a Liberal-held riding. The decisions to cancel the gas plants will cost at least $315 million altogether.

Hudak said the Liberals need to learn how to spend within their means, just like average families do every day.

The PCs will table the motion in the legislature on Monday.

“The Liberals have crossed the line,” Hudak said. “Incompetence is one thing but a blatant disregard for taxpayers’ money is something else.”

Nathan Denette / National Post files Premier Kathleen Wynne said she is not impressed by the move by the Tories.

Premier Kathleen Wynne said she is not impressed by the move by the Tories, telling reporters today that the Opposition should wait for the vote on Thursday’s budget, which is automatically a confidence matter.

Wynne said that’s when both opposition parties can express their confidence — or lack of it — in her government.

Under Ontario’s rules, which differ from Parliament and most provinces, the government would have to consent before the non-confidence motion could be called for a vote, which is not likely to happen.

However, the Conservatives are said to be planning some procedural tricks to try and ensure the motion gets debated in the legislature.

“Premier Wynne says the budget motion is the only test of confidence the House needs. Well, she’s wrong. It’s not for Kathleen Wynne to say what the people of Ontario can and cannot have confidence in,” said Tory House leader Jim Wilson.

“There is no doubt that Wynne, in order to cling to power, will try to buy off the NDP with spending gimmicks in the budget, which will further saddle our province with debt. Either the NDP believes the gas-plants scandal, the largest in Ontario’s history, is worthy of a confidence vote or they are prepared to prop up a corrupt Liberal government.”

The auditor general reported the cost of halting the Mississauga gas plant in mid-construction, just days before the 2011 election, was $275 million, $85 million more than the Liberals had been claiming.

The Liberals say cancelling the Oakville plant cost $40 million, but the auditor’s report into that energy project isn’t due until late summer.

TORONTO — Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is vowing to immediately rectify the problem of watered-down chemotherapy drugs, but she won’t tell hospitals to go back to mixing their own medications.

There is a gap in oversight of companies like Marchese Hospital Solutions, which mixed the drugs for four hospitals in Ontario and one in New Brunswick, she acknowledged. The province and Health Canada are working to close that gap.

“But I really believe that it’s not the time for finger pointing,” Wynne said.

Many hospitals mix their own chemo medications. But Marchese was under contract by the hospitals to prepare the drugs, which were provided to more than 1,100 cancer patients, some for as long as a year.

The bags containing the chemotherapy drugs were filled with too much saline, watering down the medication by as much as 20 per cent.

But Wynne said she wants to wait for answers from experts, including the Ontario College of Pharmacists, before deciding what course of action her government should take.

The fact that the problem surfaced only where the mixing had been contracted out may not be the problem, she said.

“I’m not going to make that cause-and-effect link, I think that’s what the review needs to do,” she said.

Ontario has an excellent health-care system, but it’s not perfect, Wynne said. When problems crop up, her government will fix it so that it doesn’t happen again, she said.

The college is willing to be the body that provides oversight of relatively new compounding facilities like Marchese to fill in any gaps, Wynne said.

“There are lots of people who have a piece of the oversight pie,” said Health Minister Deb Matthews.

A pharmacy expert, Jake Thiessen, will do a review of the province’s cancer drug system and a working group that includes doctors, Cancer Care Ontario, Health Canada and others are also looking at the problem, she said.

“What I said to them is: this is not a time for finger pointing,” Matthews said. “I want all of us collectively to do what’s best for patients.”

It is a time for finger pointing, said Progressive Conservative Lisa MacLeod.

Once again, the governing Liberals are trying to wash their hands of yet another health-care fiasco, she said.

The drug scare follows two spending scandals at eHealth Ontario, the agency tasked with providing electronic medical health records, and Ornge, the province’s troubled air ambulance system — both of which the government failed to oversee, she said.

“The government needs to start preventing these problems,” MacLeod said.

“It’s as if every time another crisis happens, Deb Matthews calls an oopsie. Oops, I’ve done it again. And it’s going to be OK, but don’t point your fingers at me.”

Don Drummond, the man whose name is often cited by opposition politicians at Queen’s Park as evidence that the Liberals are not serious about curbing the province’s stubborn deficit, says the government would have been wise to take his advice not just on cost-cutting, but on marketing.

One of the 362 recommendations he included in his Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Service in February, 2012, was that the Liberals identify when one of the goals was accomplished, like checking off an item on a giant grocery list of debt-reduction items.

They didn’t do that. Coupled with the fact that the government passed on several of the report’s big-ticket suggestions — eliminating the 10% energy-bill reduction, stopping the rollout of full-day kindergarten — means the Liberals have repeatedly been accused of shelving the thing.

“I don’t know why they would sit back and take it on the chin like that,” Mr. Drummond says in an interview, expressing puzzlement at what he calls a “bashful” Liberal approach to disclosing the measures they have taken.

Ministers have said that 40% of the Drummond recommendations have been implemented — and some Liberals have said that the number has climbed well beyond that — but since there’s been no transparency to the process, no giant grocery list, the public can be forgiven for not having a better idea of the apparent seriousness with which the government took the Drummond report.

But, with the first budget of the post-McGuinty era expected this month, and with it increasingly clear that Premier Kathleen Wynne and Finance Minister Charles Sousa will be crafting that document with an eye toward NDP support, serious questions remain about the deficit-fighting measures still to come.

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Dwight Duncan, the then-finance minister who received the Drummond report, said repeatedly before he left for Bay Street that the government would have to ramp up its cost cutting if it was to make its goal of eliminating the deficit by 2017-18. In fact, it needs to double the rate of deficit-reduction — lowering it by more than $2-billion in this and each of the next five years — if it is to stick to that target. That means the new budget can’t simply maintain the status quo. It has to signal new measures for the kinds of structural reforms that Mr. Drummond said — and still says — are the only way to get Ontario’s books in order. Those signals are not yet forthcoming.

The deficit-fighting accomplished under the McGuinty government, for all of the strife it caused with labour unions, was largely a matter of holding the line on wage growth. Program spending has still been rising, although at a much slower rate — around 2% — than in Mr. McGuinty’s free-spending years. But that kind of growth looks positively lavish compared to what the Liberal government has said it will do in the coming years. Program spending is supposed to grow at less than 2% annually beginning in 2014, and is forecast to grow at less than 1% in 2016-17. In 2017-2018, using the numbers provided in last year’s Ontario budget, program spending is predicted to rise at the remarkably flinty rate of 0.04%.

One could be forgiven for thinking that this kind of restraint would be impossible, or at the very least unheard of, and certainly that’s the way the Official Opposition views it. But the theory underlying those assumptions is that the government will undertake major reforms in the near term that will allow it to realize significant savings in the long term.

In a January speech, Mr. Duncan said two years of wage freezes had given the government “the opportunity to do the kinds of transformation that we need to do.”

Mr. Drummond, for one, still thinks this is possible. He says that many of his recommendations were for the kind of structural changes that shouldn’t have been slapped together in 12 months — scrapping the entire system of “business support” subsidies, for example, and replacing it with a simplified model that emphasizes improved productivity and innovation. This would be a big deal, one that breaks the habit of doling out money to just about any company that asks for it.

If it’s true that the Liberals are still considering such changes, then it’s possible that coming budgets, starting, say, now, will include the explanation for how the government expects to realize such massive savings several years from now.

But for now, all we have are some highly optimistic numbers on a couple of charts slipped into last year’s budget. And a government that needs to solicit NDP co-operation on this year’s budget — a prospect that is likely mutually exclusive with embarking on major cost-saving reforms.

Dwight Duncan described his deficit-trimming in January as having gone after the “low-hanging fruit.”

We’ll soon see if Mr. Sousa is going after the stuff that’s higher up in the trees.

Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak deserves credit for declaring that the cash-strapped provincial government should not spend hundreds of millions each year encouraging students to complete university programs that will leave them heavily indebted and with limited job prospects.

Ahead of 2011’s provincial election, the Dalton McGuinty-led Liberals committed to an across-the-board 30% tuition cut, termed a grant, for Ontario students attending university or college. There were some conditions — the students had to be from a family making less than $160,000 annually and could not have been out of high school for longer than five years. The grants add $400-million to the $11-billion provincial deficit.

In their latest “Paths to Prosperity” white paper, the Tories suggest that, if they form a government, the tuition cut would be eliminated. They say it leaves too many Ontarians, including those who have been out of high school and in the workforce longer than five years, out in the cold. They are vague about what they would replace it with, saying they would work to empower individual institutions to better manage their own financial aid programs. But the PCs are right that province’s post-secondary education system must reflect economic realities.

As tuition costs have soared, enrolment in provincial universities has only gone up. Students are paying with borrowed money. And there is little reason to believe this represent a worthwhile investment. Many graduates with university degrees are languishing in low-paid jobs, if they find employment at all. Meanwhile, Ontario needs thousands of skilled-trades workers, but too few are graduating.

The PCs suggest encouraging high school graduates, through financial incentives, to study a trade in a provincial college rather than taking a four-year university degree. The incentives could be used to steer students toward specific skills the economy needs.

We would like to see more detail about how the Tories would work with skeptical universities to revamp financial support. And we doubt linking financial aid to good grades, as the Tories have suggested, is a workable plan. But we are glad to see this issue being discussed. Too many young Ontarians are taking on too much debt, ignorant of the realities of the job market. Anything that helps better align the educational system with the province’s economic needs is worth carefully considering.

Before Queen’s Park asks residents to dish out more money for transit expansion, it needs to “root out waste” at the provincial government, says Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak.

In a wide-ranging speech hosted by the Toronto Region Board of Trade Wednesday, Mr. Hudak did not reject the notion of tolls or taxes for transit, noting he is “open to options” and acknowledging that it will take a “clear, dedicated, predictable source of funding” to pay for the subways and highway expansion he has promised.

However, he said “we should be wary of politicians who are anxious to use any story to grab new money or try to throw it at disjointed plans that perpetuate a badly fractured system.”

He stressed the province first has “an obligation” to make sure it squeezes all the dollars it can out of its existing budget, suggesting he has already identified “billions” in savings in the energy and education sectors.

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“We have to start setting aside the nice-to-haves from the must-haves. And investing in transportation is clearly a must-have,” he told the luncheon crowd.

His comments come in the midst of public consultations across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area on how to raise money for new transportation projects that aim to ease gridlock. Everything from tolls, taxes and parking fees are on the table. Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne says it’s not if a “revenue tool” is imposed, but which one.

That’s a position echoed by Carol Wilding, president and CEO of the Board of Trade.

Ms. Wilding said the board plans to soon recommend a couple of tools that she believes politicians and residents can get behind.

She said Mr. Hudak’s remarks show he “understands the gravity of the situation” when it comes to gridlock. “You’ve got a public who are very frustrated both in terms of their quality of life, and the work implications and they’re ready to move. You need to seize that moment,” said Ms. Wilding.

The PC leader’s “vision for a great Toronto” speech on Wednesday touched on some of his other proposals in anticipation of the next provincial election, such as uploading the city’s subway and LRT systems to merge with GO Transit, and assuming control of the Don Valley Parkway, the Gardiner, the Allen and 400 series highways. TTC chair Karen Stintz took to Twitter to underscore her opposition to uploading parts of the TTC, saying it has to be all or nothing.

Mr. Hudak also reiterated his pledge to go underground, vowing “under my leadership, Ontario will build subways.” He called for a subway extension to Richmond Hill, an east to west subway that treats Scarborough as a “full citizen” — currently, the plans are for an LRT on Sheppard — and driving the 427 north.

“I’ve become increasingly frustrated with our government. Our government that has allowed and in some ways enabled Toronto to slowly and painfully recede from its rightful place as a leader in North America,” he said. But he also praised Toronto for punching “above its weight” as a hub for innovation, health sciences, finance and technology.

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Duguid said he’s open to looking at those ideas, but getting rid of the tuition grant isn’t going to happen.

“If their plan is to take $40 million out of the pockets of middle- and lower-income students, to me that’s a non-starter for our students, that’s a non-starter for our system that would defeat the purpose of trying to make our system more accessible,” he said.

But Tory Leader Tim Hudak said he has a better “colleges first” plan.

Too many students are going to university, when they could be considering careers in skilled trades, he said.

“Across Ontario today, there are far too many students who have degrees and big debts and they’re back on Dad’s couch, they’ve got no job to go to,” Hudak said Tuesday.

“At the same time, we have a great number of jobs in the skilled trades, but nobody that’s able to take them on.”

Colleges should be able to do more three-year applied degrees and expand the dual-credit program, so students can earn credits in high school and college at the same time, he said.

There should be more co-operation between colleges and universities so college students can move directly into a university if they choose, Hudak added.

The Tories also want to have teachers spend more time in the classroom and be rewarded for good teaching as well as strong research.

They also talked about creating online post-secondary education to give access to students who can’t afford going to a campus.

The ideas were among the trial balloons the Tories are floating in a series of so-called “white papers.” But they aren’t official party policy.

The new Liberal leader will meet with outgoing Premier Dalton McGuinty and Lt.-Gov. David Onley to formally transfer power.

McGuinty will inform Onley that he no longer leads the government, and the lieutenant-governor will then ask Wynne to form a government. She will also pick a swearing-in date for herself and the new Liberal cabinet, which must happen before the legislature resumes Feb. 19.

Wynne has remained tight-lipped about who will be added or dropped from the cabinet since she won the Liberal leadership last Saturday.

McGuinty has said he will stay on the Liberal backbench as the representative for Ottawa-South until the next election.

Wasting little time, the province’s opposition parties stepped up the pressure Wednesday on Wynne to agree to some form of hearings into cancelled gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga, which cost taxpayers at least $230 million.

As Liberal campaign co-chair in 2011, Wynne was involved in the politically-motivated decisions to cancel the two energy projects to save Liberals seats in the suburbs west of Toronto, said Progressive Conservative critic Rob Leone.

“With complete disregard for taxpayers, Wynne treated public funds as if they belonged to the Liberal party, and now taxpayers are left with the bill,” Leone told reporters.

The Liberals pointed out Wynne’s name was absent from a list of 18 names the Conservatives released last fall of people they wanted to testify at committee hearings into the gas plants.

While the Tories are demanding committee hearings into the cancelled gas plants right after the legislature resumes Feb. 19, the New Democrats want a full-blown public inquiry.

TORONTO — Alberta Premier Alison Redford made a stop at the Ontario legislature today to sit down with the new premier-to-be Kathleen Wynne.

The two settled in a room in the legislative library to talk, giving each other a high-five for the cameras. Wynne also sat down with Progessive Conservative leader Tim Hudak. He got a high-five too.

Redford says they talked about the fundamentals of economic growth and the many challenges both provinces face this year. She says the meeting gives them a chance to discuss where they can find some common ground.

They may already have something in common as Redford tries to get a new contract with Alberta’s doctors.

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Ontario finally settled a new agreement with its doctors after a months-long battle over their fees.

Health Minister Deb Matthews — who played a major role in Wynne’s campaign — played hardball with Ontario doctors by cutting their fees when the two sides were at an impasse.

The matter was settled in early December, with doctors endorsing a new deal that’s expected to trim spending by $400 million.

Redford has suggested how talks go with the physicians could affect whether Alberta brings back health premiums after a four-year absence.

Ontario’s governing Liberals brought in a health premium of up to $900 per worker in 2003, which was widely criticized because Premier Dalton McGuinty had signed a pledge during the election campaign not to raise taxes.

TORONTO — Ontario’s opposition parties stepped up the pressure Wednesday on incoming premier Kathleen Wynne to agree to some form of hearings into cancelled gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga, which cost taxpayers at least $230 million.

As Liberal campaign co-chair in 2011, Wynne was involved in the politically-motivated decisions to cancel the two energy projects to save Liberals seats in the suburbs west of Toronto, said Progressive Conservative critic Rob Leone.

“With complete disregard for taxpayers, Wynne treated public funds as if they belonged to the Liberal party, and now taxpayers are left with the bill,” Leone told reporters.

The Liberals pointed out Wynne’s name was absent from a list of 18 names the Conservatives released last fall of people they wanted to testify at committee hearings into the gas plants.

While the Tories are demanding committee hearings into the cancelled gas plants right after the legislature resumes Feb. 19, the New Democrats want a full-blown public inquiry.

The ball is clearly in Wynne’s court, said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath: agree to either committee hearings or a public inquiry into the decisions to scrap the gas plants and move the projects to southwestern and eastern Ontario.

“One way or another, the people deserve the answers and it’s up to Ms Wynne to decide which way that’s going to happen,” Horwath told reporters.

“It’s a choice that she’s going to have to make.”

Wynne wouldn’t address the issue during an interview with The Canadian Press Wednesday, and said she wants to have talks with the opposition party leaders on a wider range of topics.

“The fact that Andrea chose to talk about the gas plant issue and a public inquiry, that’s her prerogative,” said Wynne.

“She can begin with whatever subject she chooses, but I’m going to be looking for a broad discussion of issues.”

The Tories also released an internal memo from the Ontario Power Authority, dated Oct. 3, 1012, which they said clearly showed political interference by the Liberals in trying to hide documents related to the cancelled gas plants.

“This is nothing less than an orchestrated cover-up on the part of the government, who was running from the truth,” said Leone.

“This is evidence that the government misled the public and instructed the OPA not to search for key documents.”

The government eventually released over 60,000 documents on the cancelled energy projects, but Leone said the Opposition is convinced more are being withheld.

Both opposition parties said the public is entitled to know the truth about the reasons behind the decisions to cancel the plants.

“The bottom line is the people of this province deserve answers when it comes to the behaviour of the Liberals in 2011,” said Horwath.

“We are not some kind of regime where the ruling elites take money from the public and use it to keep themselves in power. That’s not a democracy.”

Premier Dalton McGuinty blamed the non-stop debate over the gas plants for proroguing the legislature when he resigned Oct. 15, just hours before committee hearings into the projects, and a rare contempt of Parliament motion, were to begin.

If Wynne doesn’t agree to hearings, she can expect legislative business to be tied up again as the Tories try to force her hand until a committee is struck to study the situation, said Leone.

Ontario premier-designate Kathleen Wynne is hoping to sit down with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in the next couple of days after the two had a “very nice exchange” at the Toronto Board of Trade’s annual dinner Monday evening.

Speaking to the press at Queen’s Park on Tuesday, Ms. Wynne took a question from a reporter who snapped a photo of her and the mayor looking “incredibly uncomfortable” together at the dinner.

“I’m surprised that you thought it was awkward because in fact we had a very nice exchange and we agreed that we wanted to get together,” said Ms. Wynne. “And Mayor Ford asked me if I wanted him to come up here, or if I wanted to come to city hall. I said, either way for me. So my hope is that over the next couple of days that we’ll be able to meet.”

Asked what would be on the agenda, Ms. Wynne said “transit is a huge priority” for her.

“I’ve been very clear through the leadership that I think it is, for the GTHA and beyond, the number one condition that we need to get right in terms of economic growth,” she said.

On his radio show on Sunday, Mayor Ford congratulated Ms. Wynne on her victory as Liberal leader replacing Dalton McGuinty.

“I’ve met Kathleen a number of times, she’s very pleasant and I look forward to working with her,” he said.

National Post

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/29/kathleen-wynne-says-transit-is-a-huge-priority-for-her-ahead-of-meeting-with-toronto-mayor-rob-ford/feed/2stdOntario premier-designate Kathleen Wynne is hoping to sit down with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in the next couple of days after the two had a "very nice exchange" at the Toronto Board of Trade's annual dinner Monday evening.Ontario Tories would halt rollout of full-day kindergarten, cut thousands of jobshttp://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/24/ontario-tories-would-halt-rollout-of-full-day-kindergarten-cut-thousands-of-jobs/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/24/ontario-tories-would-halt-rollout-of-full-day-kindergarten-cut-thousands-of-jobs/#commentsThu, 24 Jan 2013 16:43:01 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=256088

The ambitious plan for the province’s publicly-funded school system is laid out in a new white paper, which will be released Thursday in Toronto by party leader Tim Hudak. The Citizen was given exclusive access to a draft of the plan.

The 25-page Paths to Prosperity: Preparing Students for the Challenges of the 21st Century is the party’s boldest statement yet on public education, a file the Tories have largely shied away from since the disastrous 2007 provincial election, which former leader John Tory lost after suggesting he would extend public funding to Ontario’s faith-based schools.

“Education is the linchpin of progress,” Hudak writes in his introduction to the new plan.

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]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/24/ontario-tories-would-halt-rollout-of-full-day-kindergarten-cut-thousands-of-jobs/feed/0stdOntario’s Progressive Conservative party wants to halt the rollout of full-day kindergarten, increase class sizes, cut 10,000 support staff positions, introduce standardized testing for Grade 8 students to measure their scientific knowledge, and build new schools faster in burgeoning suburbs.Chris Selley on the McGuinty years: How does a Premier like this stay in office?http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/24/chris-selley-on-the-mcguinty-years-how-does-a-premier-like-this-stay-in-office/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/24/chris-selley-on-the-mcguinty-years-how-does-a-premier-like-this-stay-in-office/#commentsThu, 24 Jan 2013 11:25:57 +0000http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/?p=104320

There is a fascinating book waiting to be written about Dalton McGuinty’s reign, currently in its whimpering death throes, as Premier of Ontario. That he means well and is generally a standup fellow is not in dispute. But his manner is plodding, his oratory is cloying and self-righteous, his governments were beset by no small number of scandals — and in the dying days of his premiership he invited us all to conclude that his Most Benevolent Premier act was just another political put-on. Hundreds of millions of dollars have gone down the can to mollify power-plant NIMBYs he once vowed to disregard; the teachers whose favour he so assiduously courted are up in arms; the legislature is cynically prorogued.

What combination of Mr. McGuinty himself, his Liberal team, rank opposition incompetence, public apathy and change-averse Ontarian temperament conspired to turn this unlikely and not-very impressive politician into a juggernaut? The answer would say as much about the province as about Mr. McGuinty, I think.

Is there some magic to Mr. McGuinty himself? Is it something about Ontarians? Do we just not care?

Alas, Jim Coyle’s promisingly titled e-book, The Quiet Evolution: How Dalton McGuinty changed Ontario — and why he resigned, is not that book. If anything, it just makes the McGuinty phenomenon all the more inexplicable.

We learn, if we did not know before, that Dalton McGuinty is the son of an irascible, fiercely Catholic politician of the same name, who resigned from the federal Liberal party in 1968 over its liberalizing abortion laws and decriminalizing homosexuality — and who supported public funding for faith-based schools in Ontario.

And we learn that Mr. McGuinty, upon entering politics after his father’s death, was widely seen as cut from the same cloth: “the odd duck from Ottawa South with the socially conservative views [who] could have fit quite comfortably into the [Progressive Conservative] caucus,” as Mr. Coyle puts it. He was the guy who voted against same-sex spousal benefits in 1994, bemoaned Ontario’s soaring debt levels and preached self-reliant smaller government.

“Too many people today have come to view government as the first resort instead of the last resort,” he wrote in a 1994 op-ed. “Most forget that our first schools, universities, hospitals and all forerunners to our modern social programs were not run or even funded by government. These services were provided by individual volunteers and charitable organizations.”

Mr. McGuinty finishes his journey as pretty much the opposite of all of the foregoing, as the paragon of a mushy Canadian progressive nanny statist. One former MPP suggests to Mr. Coyle that this is simple a matter of “growing up” — but this is an absurd dramatic licence we afford only to politicians. Normal people’s views don’t change that much between the ages of 40 and 60 without some epiphanous triggering event.

Ideology aside, the “evolution” Mr. Coyle describes will be interesting enough for political junkies, but it’s not very revelatory: At first Mr. McGuinty was an introverted and not-very-organized politician; he won the party leadership more or less by accident; and eventually, with some savvy backroom help, he developed into a well-organized, professional, bog-standard progressive Canadian politician with all the advantages that entails.

Had Mr. McGuinty been an evangelical, of course, he never would have gotten away with this: The less of a social-conservative agenda Stephen Harper & Co. pursue, the bigger government gets under their watch, the more they are accused of plotting a theocratic small-government revolution. But conservative Catholics can publicly transform into liberal Catholics entirely in less than two decades, and they will almost always get the benefit of the doubt. Hence Mr. McGuinty’s crowning achievement in cynicism masquerading as virtue: When Progressive Conservative leader John Tory proposed funding non-Catholic faith-based schools (as Dalton McGuinty Sr. had), Mr. McGuinty piously objected on grounds that all Ontario children should be educated together — which they are not, and which Mr. McGuinty did not propose to change, though as recently as 2001 he had called the status quo “unfair.” He won re-election handily as a result.

This is what has always fascinated me about Mr. McGuinty’s success in an age where people are so jaundiced about politicians. How did a reputation for uncommon earnestness, nobility and constancy survive such hypocrisy? How did it survive e-Health, and ORNGE, and Caledonia, and his rubbishing a sex-ed curriculum he’d never read, his near-disastrous green energy experiment? Will Mr. McGuinty’s reputation for bookish policy-wonkery survive Mr. Coyle’s revelation — I do not exaggerate — that he unilaterally decided to close every coal-fired power plant in the province because he read an article in Time magazine one day?

Is there some magic to Mr. McGuinty himself? Is it something about Ontarians? Do we just not care? Or was he just in the right place at the right time, while the Tories scored goal after goal on their own net? Mr. Coyle has forgotten more about Queen’s Park than I’ll ever know. If he can’t answer these questions, they only become more perplexing.

Here’s how democracy works in the world of Ontario’s Liberal government:

Upset that opposition legislators are making a lot of noise about his decision to cancel construction of a gas-fired power plant in the midst of the most recent election, costing the province at least $230 million in hopes of saving a Liberal seat, Premier Dalton McGuinty says he’s quitting and shuts down the legislature.

With no government duties, the seven would-be candidates to replace him can campaign freely without fear of facing critics in the legislature. Ontario is left to drift aimlessly for three months as the premier fades into lame duck status. The Liberals were reduced to a minority a year ago, but with the legislature closed the opposition parties are blocked from doing anything to defeat it before the new premier can be chosen.

None of the seven candidates proves to be very inspiring. Almost all are either cabinet ministers or former cabinet ministers beholden to McGuinty, who backed his program during his nine years in power, and can’t very well denounce it now.

The convention, of course, is supposed to be a chance for party members to get a look at the candidates and size up their views. But wait — that might prove embarrassing. What if sharp differences emerge? No one wants to blow a chance at making the next cabinet by getting on the wrong side of the eventual winner.

So the candidates start holding secret sessions — informal talks over dinner or coffee — to “lay the groundwork for the convention.”

“Everyone knows it’ll take support of four (candidates’ camps) to win. No one is winning this on the first ballot,” says an unnamed “insider,” according to one report.

Yes, it’s so much easier to make promises and do deals away from the delegates and the heat of public attention. You support me on the first ballot, and I’ll support you later; or vice versa, depending on who’s still around. By the way, I wouldn’t mind the resources portfolio.

That’s the way to do business in Ontario. Shut the legislature, handcuff the opposition, block public debate and do backroom deals before letting a small group of Liberals pick the next premier. Don’t all provinces work that way?

TORONTO — Ontario’s Liberal government moved Monday to counter a Progressive Conservative proposal to allow corner stores to sell alcohol by announcing a pilot project to sell liquor and wine in 10 grocery stores.

“Ontarians are, generally speaking, very pleased with the system of (liquor) distribution, they just want more access, and we think this is the right way to go.”

Some Ontario shoppers will have a new option for buying alcohol starting late in 2013 when the Liquor Control Board sets up Express stores inside 10 supermarkets in communities yet to be determined. Consumers would still take their alcohol purchases to an LCBO cashier, not to the grocery check-out with their food items.

“This is getting the product into the stores and making it much more consumer accessible, and I think this is the first step in a range of new opportunities,” said Duncan.

“I think it’s a very important development. The concept of LCBO stores in grocery stores is something that will help improve access for consumers, which is something we’ve heard about.”

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Duncan expects the pilot project will be well received by consumers and will then be expanded to other areas.

The LCBO will also create new VQA boutiques for Ontario wines inside five of its own stores, announced Duncan.

“These new VQA boutique stores within the larger LCBOs is really going to put a highlight on our wine industry,” he said.

The Progressive Conservatives have said it’s time to overhaul Ontario’s antiquated liquor laws and allow more private sector sales, especially in convenience stores.

Duncan said the changes announced Monday were not in response to the Tories’ plan, which he called “boneheaded,” and warned would mean less revenue for the government, which is facing a $14.4-billion deficit.

“That will destroy our wine industry because they won’t stock in corner stores VQA products and things like that,” he said.

“They’ll just jam in the highest volume things, which inevitably will hurt not only our wine industry but our craft beer industry.”

The LCBO turned over $1.65 billion to the province last year, excluding taxes.

PC Leader Tim Hudak has rejected the Liberals’ claim that selling any part of the LCBO would deprive the province of much-needed cash and said revenues would actually increase because there would be more choices open for consumers.

The Ontario Convenience Stores Association released a petition last July with 112,500 signatures gathered across the province supporting the idea of broader retail availability of beer and wine.

The petition was started by Joanne McMurchy, who runs the General Store in the hamlet of Vanessa, south of Brantford, where some of the 80 local residents complained they have to drive 20 minutes to get to a liquor store.

Former Liberal premier David Peterson promised to allow beer and wine sales in corner stores in the 1980s, but never followed through on the pledge.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/12/31/ontario-pilot-project-to-see-liquor-sold-in-10-grocery-stores/feed/5stdxSome Ontario shoppers will get the option of buying liquor and wine inside their local grocery stores starting late next year. The Liquor Control Board will set up what it calls Express outlets inside 10 grocery stores over the next 18 months.Ontario Liberal leadership candidates distance themselves from McGuinty controversieshttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/12/19/ontario-liberal-leadership-candidates-distance-themselves-from-mcguinty-controversies/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/12/19/ontario-liberal-leadership-candidates-distance-themselves-from-mcguinty-controversies/#commentsWed, 19 Dec 2012 16:35:25 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=244924

OTTAWA — Candidates vying to succeed Dalton McGuinty went to varying lengths Tuesday to distance themselves from some of the controversies that triggered the Ontario premier’s abrupt retirement.

All seven leadership contenders admitted during their third debate that mistakes were made in implementing the Liberal government’s green energy plan.

And one — former education minister Gerard Kennedy — went so far as to meet with chanting, placard-waving elementary school teachers who protested outside the debate hall at Ottawa’s Carleton University, demanding the repeal of Bill 115.

The bill gives the government the power to freeze wages and remove teachers’ right to strike. Kennedy, who quit McGuinty’s cabinet to run for the federal Liberal leadership in 2006, told protesters he’d restore full, fair contract bargaining.

Inside the hall, the debate was largely a friendly affair, with no fireworks between candidates.

It was punctuated, however, by several odd moments as the contenders discussed ways to rebuild the Ontario Liberal party, which was reduced to a minority in the last election, reduce poverty and promote clean energy.

Former minister Sandra Pupatello raised eyebrows with her novel assertion that the party needs to indulge in more patronage to fill positions on provincial agencies, boards and commissions.

“We need Liberals appointed to those. We need that so that we know, if that’s the arm of the Ontario government, it too will be reflecting centrist Liberal values,” she told some 200 Liberals.

That remark drew an immediate rebuke from NDP MPP Gilles Bisson.

“Ontarians want the most qualified people working at boards, agencies and commissions, not the best connected Liberals,” Bisson said in a statement.

Kennedy, a former food bank founder, also drew puzzled looks when he insisted that the poor “don’t want a handout and they don’t want to be condescended with a hand up; they want a hand hold.” He said Liberals should set themselves a “hard target” to reduce provincial welfare rolls by eight to 10 per cent.

While the contenders sprinkled their remarks with praise for McGuinty, their discomfort with aspects of his recent record was obvious during debate on clean energy.

“That Green Energy Act was a positive plus for the environment. Somehow in all of this, our energy policies became quite the yoke that we had to carry around,” said Pupatello.

MPP Kathleen Wynne acknowledged “mistakes that may have been made” but argued that McGuinty’s record on green energy is still something Liberals should be proud of.

“We took a leap to create a green economy and I don’t think any other party would have done that.”

MPP Glen Murray went the furthest in directly criticizing the McGuinty government for ignoring community opposition to wind farms and plans for two gas power plants, one in Mississauga, the other in Oakville.

Construction had not started on the Oakville gas plant when the Liberals decided to cancel it in 2010, after well-funded local opponents brought in famed environmental activist Erin Brokovich to speak against the project. The Mississauga gas plant, however, was under construction when the Liberals cancelled it two weeks before the Oct. 6, 2011 election.

McGuinty’s retirement announcement came in the midst of a scandal over allegations of a coverup of the $230-million price tag for scrubbing the plants. The opposition parties have contended that the total cost of cancelling the plants exceeded the government’s estimates and was closer to a billion dollars.

During Tuesday’s debate, Murray pointed to rival candidate Charles Sousa, who fought against the plant next door to his Mississauga riding.

“We got into an election and then someone else made that decision in a New York minute.”

Murray insisted he’s “darned proud” of the government’s green energy plan but he said Liberals failed to persuade Ontarians of its merits because they ignored community concerns and the advice of local MPPs.

“We didn’t listen to our MPPs … I daresay if we just had simply done that, we wouldn’t be having some of the difficulties we’re having today.”

MPP Eric Hoskins agreed Liberals need to “recalibrate, and in some cases, I think, press the re-set button” on its environmental policies. He said he’d give priority to clean energy projects that have the support of local communities.

For his part, Sousa suggested the party could avoid such fiascos in future if it reins in the power of the premier’s office, giving grassroots members more involvement in policy development and backbenchers more clout through increased free votes and private member’s bills.

“What we don’t want is more power centrally … We do not want to be that party that’s disconnected.”

MPP Harinder Takhar agreed that policy ideas must trickle up from the grassroots, saying “if we don’t get the ideas from the grassroots, we cannot come up with a platform or a plan that actually meets the needs of the people.”

Liberals will choose a new leader to succeed McGuinty on Jan. 26.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/12/19/ontario-liberal-leadership-candidates-distance-themselves-from-mcguinty-controversies/feed/2stdFormer education minister Gerard Kennedy went so far as to meet with chanting, placard-waving elementary school teachers who protested outside the debate hall at Ottawa’s Carleton University, demanding the repeal of Bill 115.